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Discussion Of The Feasibility Of Miracles And The Grounds For ChristianityExisti
Discussion of the Feasibility of Miracles and the Grounds for Christianity Existing Without Miracles Discussion of the Feasibility of Miracles and the Grounds for Christianity Existing Without Miracles Kurt Erler Philosophical Classics 11/11/96 In the following Discussion, I will point out the facts and ideas that disagree with Hume's ideas. The ideas are the ones on miracles in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding involving Section ten Of Miracles. The idea of this is using the circle philosophical argument. If one agrees that Christians believe in the Bible, and that miracles have people understand the Bible as Hume points out, then Christians must believe in miracles. If one takes away any of these things, the statement does not hold. In this case, the removal of the Bible is used. Hume confronts the ideas of religion directly by stating that without the splendor of miracles, Christianity and other beliefs would not stand. He states that miracles are used to make us believe the scriptures. This is not true, since from the starts of Christianity there were not always scriptures. There were pieces of art work done for generations before the texts were written and after that, they still had to be published. From there, only the rich were well off enough to afford such a book. In fact, the Gospels were written from 20-100 years after Christ died. The Acts were a collection of works made from two hundred to three hundred years after the crucifixion, collected from different accounts. And then there are the letters, which were written approximately four hundred and fifty years after the fact. They were written by St. Paul, who was also a soldier for the Roman army and killed hundreds of Christians, who believed and followed God, without the scriptures that Hume talks about. From this, if you take away the scriptures, God's church carries on and if you take the people from the church, "God's church" still survives. The scriptures do not make people believe, they help people understand. For this Hume is correct. He states that miracles help Christians understand what they believe, but the belief and faith are deeper. Miracles and parables helped people believe and understand what was to be our faith, but they are not what faith is about. You can take any miracle, and faith will still exist. Miracles are also becoming more understood. There is thought that as Hume presents, some miracles are in themselves tricks of nature, such as the splitting of the Red Sea. At a time of extreme low tide one can cross, and that the Egyptian army sank because of the mud or their heavy armor they were laden with. There are bodies and armor found underneath the Red Sea that is Roman and there exists evidence of this being the cause of it. Hume says that miracles are the defiance or the breaking of the rules of nature. In his explanation, the lifting of a house or mountain is just as big a miracle, as is the lifting of a feather by the wind. As stated, in this Hume is possibly correct, that miracles are phenomena of nature that can, with advances in science, be explained. This is what Hume calls Transgressions of a law of nature. Hume defining non-natural events is led to believe that they are miracles, but all the time miracles, through science, are seen to be possible, so a miracle then is not a miracle as much know, yet the faith is not broken. Hume is also trying to end in his mind, what he thinks is superstition. He thinks that when we start to think clearly about religion, we will start to lose our belief in it. Again he is using the argument that is stated in the above paragraph. Hume's criticisms are not aimed to tell you that your religious beliefs are false, instead he does not agree with the evidence given to support their convictions. He says the only advantage to holding onto your religious belief... This is ONLY a preview of the article. If you would like to view the entire document, you must subscribe to Academic Library. Please register below now!
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